On Fri, 17 Jul 1998 16:43:00 -0700, T. Martin <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Despite the
>fact that this is fully acknowledged in Neanderthin, somehow this list
>has a distict anti-vegetable flavour, as if it is important to prove that
>all humans can be maximally healthy on steak and eggs.
Thank you for your supporting voices by both posting and private email.
>
>> Gathering is much more efficient and much less dangerous-think of parasites.
>I'm not sure what you mean here. How do parasites fit into it?

The bigger and (therefore) older an animal is, the bigger is the chance that
it has parasites, especially in the liver. Parasites, that live inside an
animal may also
 live inside humans.
For example bladder worm. Several (still today deadly) forms of tapeworm.
Nematodes. It you read a medical book on this topic you'll be
probably terrified.
Thats why even farmed meet has to be looked at.
If you have the danger to get a deadly infection
("inhabitation" by parasites) which may dramatically weaken
you for a long time or for lifetime or even kill you --
then i'd call this a _very_ bad ratio of invested energy to derived energy.
And a bad survival strategy.
Humans don't have the right gut equipment in the gut
to kill parasites in the meat - like cats for ex.
Arrival of the control fire (500000 years back?) may have lowered the risk.
And I really think that _that's_ the reason why smoke (a sign of fire)
really tastes good! Why should (even cancerogenous) fire otherwise taste good?
Because humans liking this sign of cooking survived the parasites better.